The Vera Institute has just published a report entitled “The Price of Prisons: Examining State Spending Trends, 2010-2015.” According to the report, only 13 states were successful in reducing both population and spending, and one of those states was North Carolina. Our prison population declined by 8% over the five year period, while spending declined by 6%.
The report notes a number of other interesting facts about North Carolina, including:
Prison Population, 2015: 37,066
Total Spent on Prisons, 2015: $1,118,669,204
Cost per Inmate, 2015: $30,180
Spending per State Resident, 2015: $111
The online version of the report includes an data-visualization tool that makes it easy to compare states. It shows, for example, that — at $64,642 and $220 respectively — cost per inmate and spending per resident in Californian were twice as high as in North Carolina. Evidently we’re doing something right!
